When you’re a 6-foot-7, muscle-bound actor, you don’t get a lot of roles playing weepy, sensitive types.

And that suits Raymond Olubowale just fine.

Olubowale recently finished filming the Adam Sandler blockbuster, Pixels, which is scheduled to be released this summer. He plays a Navy Seal sergeant in the action comedy, the plot described as ‘alien life forms sending real life video games to attack the Earth’. Olubowale has also landed a role in the soon-to-be-filmed comic book action flick Bravo 14 (its working title) which is set to star Jared Leto, Will Smith and Tom Hardy. In all, through his two professional acting names, Bola Olubowale and Ray Olubowale, he’s appeared in roughly 11 movies and TV series.

“It’s fantastic, genuinely fantastic,” said Olubowale of his acting career. “It’s an opportunity to never grow up. You’re just one big kid playing make-believe and you’re compensated well.”

When not acting, Olubowale also works as a professional bodyguard, protecting the likes of Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Jason Bateman, and Kanye West for events such as the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as music festivals in Canada and elsewhere.

“I enjoy body guarding because of what it gives me,” said Olubowale. “Boxing and body guarding has given me the opportunity to see the world on somebody else’s dime.”

And, oh yes, when he’s not shooting movies or guarding celebrities, Olubowale is a professional boxer, and a pretty good one. In fact, he’s a former Canadian heavyweight champion and will face 51-year-old Donovan (Razor) Ruddock in an undercard bout this Saturday night at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. The main event will feature undefeated local favourite Logan McGuinness (20-0-1, 9KOs) of Orangeville facing Argentine stylist Luis Armando Juarez, 19-8-2, 4KOs), a comeback bout for McGuiness, who has been out for almost two years with various injuries. McGuiness recently signed a promotional deal with Boston outfit Murphy Boxing, the brainchild of Ken Casey, the primary songwriter, bass guitarist and one of the lead singers of the Boston Celtic punk band, Dropkick Murphys.

Ruddock, who fought some of the best heavyweights of the 1980s and 1990s, including Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and Michael Dokes, is trying to prove that, despite his advancing years, he can still be a force in the division. The Jamaican-born Canadian has fashioned a 38-5-1 (29KOs) record (though his last fight was in 2001), and is fully expecting to demolish Toronto native Olubowale, (10-6-1, 7KOs), and then eventually fight for a world title. At 44, Olubowale is no spring chicken either, but he feels he has enough to send Ruddock back into retirement, then get back his Canadian title and then fight for a Commonwealth crown.

“I have the utmost respect for Donovan,” said the Nigerian-born Olubowale, who goes by the boxing nickname, Mount Kilimanjaro. “He’s a Canadian legend as far as I’m concerned. But I’m not being asked to fight and beat Donovan at 25 or 30. I’m asked to fight Donovan at 51. You know what? I got this. I have respect for the man for his achievements and accomplishments, but come Saturday night, he’s just another opponent across the ring from me.”

Olubowale has been fighting as a pro since 2004, but hasn’t had a bout in two years, when he lost to the Canadian title to Eric Martel Bahoeli of Quebec City. It’s not that he hasn’t wanted to fight, or that he’s too busy acting and being a bodyguard. It’s just been difficult for the 6-foot-7 fighter to get fights.

“I’ve had fights fall through time and time again, which is part and parcel of my career,” said Olubowale, who was a Ruddock fan when he was younger. “It’s the unfortunate component when you don’t have a promoter. So I don’t fight regularly.”

Still, no matter what happens at the Hershey Centre on Saturday night, Olubowale has his acting and his bodyguard work to fall back on. He admits that he’s been typecast somewhat in his film work, because of size and muscular appearance. But he certainly isn’t complaining.

“The reality is, I’m a big guy. And they’re going to cast me as such,” he said. “Am I afraid of being typecast? No. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to do this, just to be in the acting world. I’m not worried about typecasting. If I’m typecast, so be it. I’ll worry about that a little down the road when I’m a little more established.”

A win against Ruddock on Saturday, and Olubowale will be typecast as a comeback killer.

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